Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus leloupi

Neolamprologus leloupi "Lyamembe"

Lyamembe — lyah-MEHM-beh (approx.)

The fish

How this cichlid is built, and everything about how it lives, eats and breeds, is shared with the species — this page doesn't repeat it.

Read the full Neolamprologus leloupi account →

Specific to Lyamembe

  • Collection locality & coordinates
  • Local coloration — best judged from the living-fish photo
  • Kept as a single-provenance line, never crossed with other collection points

Care facts below are the species' — shared with Neolamprologus leloupi.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size2.8 in7 cm total length
Temperature73–81 °F23–27 °C
pH7.4–8.4alkaline
Depth7–115 ft2–35 m
DietZooplankton and small invertebrates; feeds both by picking off the substrate and by schooling a metre or two above the bottom to graze drifting zooplankton
BreedingCave-spawning substrate brooder75–150 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesWeak; males average slightly larger than females, no reliable colour or fin-shape difference
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Lyamembe population

Neolamprologus leloupi "Lyamembe" is the Lyamembe population of Neolamprologus leloupi, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Neolamprologus leloupi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Lyamembe fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Neolamprologus leloupi is a small, sand-beige cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, easily lost in the shadow of its near-twin Neolamprologus caudopunctatus and routinely confused by name with the unrelated lemon cichlid, Neolamprologus leleupi. It lives in the intermediate sand-and-rock zone of the lake's central coasts, hovering in loose schools a metre or two off the bottom to pick zooplankton from open water. Plain at a glance, it carries one quietly distinctive feature: a black-edged caudal fin, often with a white inner band, that is the single most reliable way to tell it apart from its look-alikes.

Full Neolamprologus leloupi account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus leloupi "Lyamembe"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lamprologus leloupi Poll 1948 (valid as Neolamprologus leloupi)
  3. FishBase — Neolamprologus leloupi (Poll, 1948)
  4. GBIF — Neolamprologus leloupi (Poll, 1948)
  5. Poll, M. 1948. Descriptions de Cichlidae nouveaux recueillis par la mission hydrobiologique belge au Lac Tanganika — original description
  6. Maréchal & Poll 1991, Neolamprologus in Check-list of the Freshwater Fishes of Africa (CLOFFA IV)